Experts warn of new mobile malware

Security experts are warning Windows Mobile phone users to beware of downloading games to their devices as it emerged that a Russian-speaking hacker has been uploading versions of a particular game with malicious Trojan programs hidden inside.

Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley wrote on his blog yesterday that a number of Windows Mobile users are reporting that an unusual side effect of playing the 3D Anti-terrorist action” game – their phones are making expensive calls to international destinations.

“It appears that a Russian-speaking hacker has taken the game "3D Anti-terrorist action", embedded his Trojan horse inside it, and uploaded it to Windows Mobile download sites on the web,” he wrote.

“Presumably they are hoping to skim some money from the expensive premium rate phone calls. Sophos detects the malware as Troj/Terdial-A, and advises all mobile phone users to exercise caution when downloading and installing new applications.”

While relatively rare, mobile phone viruses have long been heralded as the next big threat to enterprises.

According to Cluley, criminals have been trying to make money from mobile malware for the past six years or so.

“For instance, back in 2004 we saw the Mosqit Trojan that could infect Nokia phones running Symbian, forcing affected devices to send text messages to premium rate numbers,” he explained. “Like this latest report, the hackers hid their Trojan inside a cracked version of a mobile phone game.”